


Asteroid Belts are More Dangerous than Previously Thought

by starchaser22



Series: Tumblr Prompts [5]
Category: DCU, Green Lantern (Comics)
Genre: M/M, Prompt Fill, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, Soulmates, White Lantern Kyle Rayner, also kyle is a white lantern in this, asteroids as use of a plot device, i just love kyle sm, my poor baby has been through SM
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-24
Updated: 2018-11-24
Packaged: 2019-08-28 16:00:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,217
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16726500
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/starchaser22/pseuds/starchaser22
Summary: Anonymous asked: “halkyle soulmate au where when you write on someone it shows up on them as well since kyle's an artist that could be interesting”





	Asteroid Belts are More Dangerous than Previously Thought

**Author's Note:**

> so i tried to add voicing to this. so like, when hal is a kid, he uses Kid Logic, and then later..... You Will See.
> 
> also this was the only title i could come up with other than “Asteroids are a Bad Plot Device but the Author Doesn’t Understand” and this was shorter

Most kids, as soon as they learn the alphabet, start out with a tentative and shaky “hi.”

Sometimes they would get a response back, sometimes they wouldn’t. The ones who never saw anything appear would sob, cry about how they don’t have a soulmate, and their parents would have to comfort them with promises of “Of course you do, they just can’t read yet.” Which was, for the most part, true.

As for Hal, he had made it a decent way into elementary school before anything else ever appeared on his skin. Doodles, scribbles, it looked like a five year old had gotten their hands on some Crayola markers. Hal, being seven at the time, had scoffed at such childish behavior, as if he hadn’t been doing the exact same thing a few months ago.

Usually, his arms would be an array of doodles and colorful shapes. Hal could tell whenever his soulmate learned something new, a shape or color or letter, because it would be all over his skin. It’s not like he minded, though. Looking down at the art made him smile.

Hal was in grade four when he finally saw the hesitant “hi,” except this one was drawn more than once, each time in a new color, varying in size and shape. It took all of his self control for Hal to not immediately jump from his seat and find a marker. He had been in math at the time, so he only had a pencil, which didn’t show up. It was _awful_. His legs had shaken the desk, eraser tapping on the side, and it took a whopping four minutes before he asked to use the bathroom.

Hal sprinted from the room, searching the elementary school hallways for a stray pen. There was a Sharpie on top of a bookshelf that he eventually found. Hal uncapped it with his teeth, rolled up his sleeve, and slowly wrote “Hi,” as neatly as he could.

It must have taken his soulmate a few moments to notice it. Hal waited with baited breath, watching for any change near his own mark as new lines and squiggles appeared everywhere else.

Then a small smiley face appeared next to it.

Hal outright _screamed_. Several teachers ran from nearby rooms to shut him up, the librarian dragging him to the Principal, but he didn’t care. His soulmate was here, and they were talking.

It took him a few days to realize that he should probably do something besides write “hi” back and forth. He decided on a simple, “My name is Hal,” in the neatest handwriting he could muster. He bit his tongue while trying to make the lines straight; his teacher always says his handwriting is unreadable, which Hal doesn’t believe one bit… But if it is true, then how will his soulmate know who he is?

It was a few hours before he received a colorful response. “Kyle,” but each line was in a different color. A tree and sun appeared next to it, with shaky grass underlining. Hal thought it was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen. He took a picture of it and kept it on his desk at home.

As the years passed, the art never went away. It slowly changed from squiggles and swirls to doodles, each one more accurate and detailed than the last. By the time Hal was in grade 8, it was as if life was forming on his arms. Some days, it would be robots and lasers, while others, it would be flowers and vines circling his wrist. He always woke up to a new work of art.

“I wish I could draw like you,” Hal wrote, one day in art class. Unfortunately, he still had to take art for the rest of the year. Stupid curriculum, stupid teachers. He would rather take more science.

“Try,” Kyle answered, with a little smiley face and thumbs up beneath it.

While Hal didn’t immediately do anything, too worried that the boy on the other end would make fun of his artistic ability (or lack thereof), he did eventually join in on the doodles. Nothing too big. It began with a small fighter jet on the inside of his wrist, to which Kyle colored the windshield and shaded the wings. It made him smile, brimming with joy from the knowledge that they had done that _together._

Most of the drawings were still Kyle’s, but every once in awhile, Hal would join in. He usually started it, and Kyle would come along and color it, make it look more realistic.

This was a pretty standard, day-to-day routine - they would even learn little bits about each other while doing this. After a few years, Hal took it for granted, so when he woke up with bare skin, it sent him into a panic.

He’d immediately ran to find something to write with, and, when he found a pen that _wasn’t_ drained of ink, wrote a quick and messy, “Are you okay?”

Hal had to wait hours for a response, and when he finally did, his worry instantly transformed to anger.

“Couldn’t have any ink. Teachers thought I was cheating.”

How _dare_ they? His next words came out in an angry scribble, lines shaking and letters blurred together. “That’s _bullshit!_ ”

Hal watched, anger and annoyance slowly seeping from his body as each new line appeared on his arm. Soon, there was a little stick figure man, shrugging, with the word, “Yeah,” next to it. Hal couldn’t help but smile just a bit.

It was the next few years of similar stuff. Hal would often find colorful and creative drawings of various degrees across his skin, but other days, it would be lifeless and blank. Even when there was no ink on his arms, there would be little doodles that appeared on his thighs or palms. Kyle just couldn’t keep away art, and Hal adored it.

When Hal was first recruited to the Green Lantern Corps, he was disappointed to see that his uniform covered up almost all of his skin. The only way he would see those cheerful designs would be if Kyle drew them on his face, and even then, Hal would have to look in a mirror to see. There aren’t exactly many of those in Space.

He hadn’t realized how much he depended on the art. Hal often found himself glancing down, only to meet the white gloves of his uniform. Bare, lifeless. _Blank._ Hal wound up missing Kyle’s art.

It was lonely.

Hal was the only human here - the _first_ human Lantern. Sure, he had a partner he could trust, and most everyone was friendly, but he missed all the culture and social commentary from Earth that didn’t exist in Sector Zero.

Then came Guy, then John. Simon and Jessica.

And Kyle.

He wasn’t as lonely anymore.

Hal never knew why he was drawn to Kyle so much. Kyle wasn’t his partner, had only been given the ring to stop him, and was probably the Lantern he had the least in common with, out of the five. Before becoming a Green Lantern, Hal had been in the Air Force, shooting down fighter jets by day and carelessly soaring through the air by night. Meanwhile, Kyle had been an _artist_. That’s about as far away from Air Force Test Pilot as you can get.

Between Hal’s own solo adventures, Kyle’s White Lantern thing, and the sheer size of the universe, it wasn’t often that they encountered each other in the field, though they did sometimes. For example, earlier today, when they had worked to stop yet another one of the Sinestro Corps attempts at taking down Mogo. Hal swears, if Sinestro spent half as much energy attacking them and put it towards policing the universe… _God_ , the whole ordeal frustrates him to no end.

On the way back, Hal had been hit by an asteroid. How? Not sure. He supposes that, given the amount of time they all spend flying around space, it was a wonder nothing had happened until then.

All he knows is that now he was in the Medbay, Kyle, John, and Guy looming over him as he groggily tried to open his eyes. The light instantly blinded him, obstructing his view with a harsh glare. Everything before him was a fuzzy blur of white and green.

“There he is!” Guy cheered, clapping the arm of the bed. “Survives fights with Zod, Brainiac, Sinestro - even becomes will _and_ fear _itself -_ but gets taken down by an _asteroid_ . Un-fucking- _believable_.”

Despite the harsh words, when Hal finally was able to see, he noticed Guy’s bright, lopsided smile looking down at him from the side. John was also smiling at the foot of his bed, but it was more of a tight-lipped “goddammit Hal” type of smile, the one he has seen far too many times. But to his right, there was Kyle.

_Kyle._

Kyle, who was looking at him with a form of awestruck wonder. Unlike the other two, he wasn’t in his uniform anymore. A loose grey t-shirt hung from his shoulders, jagged and worn jeans hanging loose from his hips.

Hal looked down at himself. He didn’t have a shirt, soft wind cool on his skin. There was a blanket draped across his waist, but he still felt sweatpants clinging to his skin.

Then he _saw_ Kyle.

His hand was draped over Hal’s, just a light, feather touch that he didn’t notice until he physically saw it. Soft, lightly tanned skin with scattered freckles across his knuckles. A loose wire bracelet was loosely slung over his wrist, and his white lantern ring was hot, different than Hal’s lukewarm one. It wasn’t burning him, on the contrary, it was more relaxing. This wasn’t what was catching his attention, though. No, there was something else there, in the touch. A low hum, a buzz, some kind of white noise beneath everything else.

“Sure are lucky you had the White Lantern with you,” Guy said, oblivious to the wheels churning in Hal’s head. “Might’ve been picked off by that damn space rock if you hadn’t’ve been with the _Lantern of Life_.”

Kyle smiled, listening to Guy’s comment, but it wasn’t where his attention was focused. Hal noticed that Kyle wasn’t actually starring at Hal. Or, rather, not Hal’s _face_. His attention was focused at the top of his arm. He looked over, noticing the string of leaves that his soulmate had drawn, and smiled.

Kyle swallowed.

John pointedly looked at the man to his right. “Come on, Guy, let’s go.”

Guy looked like he was going to protest, but one look on the Corps’ Leader’s Face changed his mind. John tilted his head in the direction of the door, guiding the two of them from the room. Kyle stayed where he was.

Hal looked up at him, then to the door. He shifted in the bed, sitting up just a bit. The air was unreasonably thick.

The moments passed in silence as Hal, for once, couldn’t find the words to say. He hadn’t really _expected_ Kyle to say anything, but when had Kyle ever followed expectations?

“So I’m your soulmate.”

“ _Excuse me?_ ” Because, of all the things he hadn’t expected Kyle to say, that hadn’t even occurred to him as a possibility to add to the list called “Of All The Things He Hadn’t Expected Kyle To Say.”

Did that make any sense?

Forgive him, he’d just been hit with a _freaking asteroid_ . Which _also_ didn’t make sense, because he has a _Green Lantern ring_ that can _protect_ him from that sorta stuff.

But, alas. Kyle.

Hal peered up at the man. “Care to repeat?” No way he heard that right.

Instead of speaking again, Kyle moved his touch from Hal’s hand (to which he did _not_ groan pitifully) to his shoulder, pushing the right sleeve up. There was a winding vine of leaves there, expertly shaded and colored, and it looked… achingly familiar. Where had he seen that before?

Hal looked to the side, confused, when his own arm once again caught his eye. _Duh._ Of course, that’s where.

Hal stared at his arm. “ _Wait a damn second.”_

Kyle (soulmate) drew vines on his arm, but Kyle (Lantern) has the same vines on his arm. Perhaps Kyle (soulmate) may be the same as Kyle (Lantern).

Hal’s eyes widened.

It was so glaringly obvious. They were both artists, roughly the same age, same innocent, happy persona. They even had the same _name_.

Despite the seriousness of the situation, Hal swears he heard Kyle _giggle_.

Hal’s mouth fell open. “ _Excuse_ me, I was just hit by a concussing _space rock.”_

“You don’t have a concussion, Hal,” Kyle rolled his eyes. The words sounded tired, but his smile betrayed him. Reaching out, his hand returned to it’s previous place atop Hal’s.

There it was again. That low hum. Was that a soulmate thing?

Hal decided that, soulmate thing or not, the hum felt good, and the hum comes from touching Kyle. Conclusion: touch more Kyle.

Hal twisted his wrist around, taking Kyle’s hand tighter than before, and pulls him forward. As expected, Kyle stumbles - not falling - but he reached  out and graber onto Hal’s arm to keep balance. The warm, tingly hum spread throughout his touch, ignited by the contact, and Kyle shivered above him.

“Feel good?” Hal teased. Kyle playfully stuck his tongue out in response, pulling his arm back.

“Come _on.”_ Shifting his place on the unfamiliar bed to allow space for someone next to him, he dramatically patted the empty mattress.

“Oh, Hal, you should rest,” Kyle insisted, slumping back.

“And we _both_ know I will rest much better with _you_ next to me.”

The result was instantaneous; a deep red flushed itself from below the man's collar to the tip of his ears. When he looked up, Hal’s smug grin was all that stared back at him, so Kyle locked away any sense of reason and threw himself over the bed’s railing, one leg at a time. He landed next to Hal, but still sitting up, facing each other. “I was going to be bold and lay, like, _on_ you, or something,” Kyle averted his gaze to the side, then quickly down to his lap, “but you’re injured.”

He looked almost _disappointed_ , and that wasn’t okay. Hal felt a bit of guilt at interrupting Kyle’s “boldness” (even though he personally thought Kyle was one of the boldest people out there, bold enough to have caught Hal’s attention even _before_ he knew they were soulmates, and this whole fidget-y nervous schtick seemed a little out of character _._ Then again, Hal supposes after Sora, and Carol, and… Alex… It makes sense for Kyle to be standoffish about this).

Hal sighed. He’d probably have to directly address that stuff later, reassure Kyle that he won’t die, etcetera. For now, he had to mend that little (admittedly cute) disappointed frown. Despite the soreness in his chest telling him otherwise, Hal reassured, “You can lay on me.” When Kyle shot him with a disbelieving glare, he continued, “I’m a man, I can take it.”

Absolute _stupidest_ thing he’s ever said, by the way.

Kyle continued to study him for a few more moments, then slowly, _slowly,_ shifted to lean down. _Slowly_ (glacial, erosion-level, longer than any of their lifetimes level of slow), Kyle met his shoulder with Hal’s upper chest.

Hal screamed.

“What’s going on here?” Guy was yelling, barging back into the room with his ring lit at full power, obviously ready to fight (a signature Guy Gardner trait, really). It took a couple seconds for him to stop and look _down_ to see Kyle - staring at him, alarmed - and Hal, staring at him, begging for the pain to _end_.

An ever-wise smirk began to appear on Guy’s face, and Hal only had just enough time prepare himself for some snarky, dreadful comment. Then John was there, marching behind Guy and pulling him back through the door by the collar. He slammed the door shut behind them, but Hal and Kyle could still hear muffled conversation past it.

Kyle turned back to him, “Maybe this will lessen Guy’s… _teasing,_ later _,”_ He said, but there was a light smile on his face, one that had been masked by tension before the interruption. As much as Hal was totally going to kick Guy’s ass for this later, it did help. And he was very reluctant to say that. It was also very important that Guy _never_  knew.

“Ah, Kyle. Your optimism is one of the most beautiful things about you,” Hal complimented, finding that it wasn’t as weird as he thought it would be to admit that aloud, “But, here, I’m going to have to cut it off with a hard _no.”_

When Kyle opened his mouth, it looked like wanted to keep going at this (not that Hal minded, he just wished that they were talking about things _other_ than Guy Gardner right now), but he said something completely different. “‘One of the most beautiful things’?” Oh, right. That part about it being easy? Hal took it back. He inhaled sharply and held it, waiting for Kyle to finish talking, but he gave nothing more than a raised eyebrow.

“Yeah,” Hal breathed, exhaling. “One of.”

Kyle poked his chest. “Wanna share with the class?”

He groaned. “Isn’t getting hit by a flying meteor a good enough reason?”

“Okay, first of all, you were hit by an asteroid, which is even more pathetic.” Kyle grinned. He finally decided to lay next to him, one arm propping his head up with an elbow while the other hand roamed around his partner’s chest. Some of the spots he touched hurt, but not nearly enough that Hal would want him to stop. Oh, no, God forbid he stop.

Hal, on the other hand, was still flat on his back. His shoulders felt tense, stiff against the hospital mattress. His head was flopped over to the right, staring at Kyle. “You know,” He started, shifting his arms a bit and using one hand to poke Kyle’s side. “It would’ve been a lot better if Guy had caught us doing something more exciting.”

Kyle’s eyebrows shot up. “Really? More exciting than having him see you screaming in pain? Seems fairly eventful to me.” He dared to look smug.

Hal felt betrayed. “You know, I was going to kiss you, but I’m not so sure I want to anymore.”

Kyle’s jaw dropped. “What? Hal-“

“Nope.” He turned his head away and crossed his arms.

Even if it was all just joking around, Hal couldn’t help but feel a little guilty when Kyle leaned over him, forced his way into Hal’s eyesight, and made the most overly dramatic pouty face the world (or rather, universe) had ever seen.

Sighing, Hal pushed past the pain in his side to lift both arms up. His palms landed on either side of Kyle’s face. The warm hum returned, thrumming in the space where their skin touched. As he slowly pulled him down closer, the pout morphed into an expression of pure adoration.

When Guy came back to check on them, only a few moments later, he was met with something _much_ more incriminating.

  


**Author's Note:**

> oh god oh god  
> ive been working on this FOREVER im SO SORRY
> 
> anyways uh  
> happy holidays?  
> i actually have a LONG fic im working on but i need a better title than “under the red hood but gayer” so. maybe look forward to that. if thats something youre into. when i come up with a better title, you better saddle up in your reading glasses, because this will be a WILD RIDE.


End file.
